Portret van een onbekende man 1875 - 1934

This sketchy portrait of an unknown man was made by Isaac Israels, and it's like catching a thought on paper. It's all done in pencil, with these quick, searching lines that barely contain the form of a head. You can almost feel Israels circling his subject, trying to nail down the essence of who this person might be. Look at the way he suggests the eyes and the set of the mouth. There's a real economy of means here, a sense of getting to the heart of the matter with just a few strokes. I wonder what Israels was thinking as he drew. Was he trying to capture a likeness, or was he more interested in the play of light and shadow on the face? It's like he's in conversation with other artists like Degas or Manet, who were also fascinated by the fleeting moments of modern life. Artists are always inspiring each other, you know, building on what came before. There is a beauty in this ambiguity, in the questions it raises rather than the answers it provides.